D80 housing. Problem with shoe connector.

[John Gulliver]

The D80 housing I recently bought from Submerge Camera has the same problem as you describe here Hot Shoe Revisions
i.e. the shoe conector is too long to fit properly into my camera's hot shoe. I have been in e-mail contact about this with Brett Foster, who asked me to return the housing to you, which I have now done. However, I think you should amend your website so as to make it quite clear that 1) the problem is not limited to the D50 and D70 and 2) it is the housing's shoe connector and not the camera's hot shoe that is wrongly dimensioned (the shoe connector of my friend's somewhat older D80 housing fits perfectly into my camera's hot shoe). A note about this problem in the manual would also have saved me (and presumably others) a lot of time and trouble. Will you reimburse me for the 80 US dollars it cost me to send the housing to you, by the way?

 

[Ikelite Staff]

This is not a problem that we have continued to experience with newer housing models, as we modified the tooling for our hotshoe connector several years ago. I apologize for your intermittent hotshoe connection but would suspect that it is a random problem with tolerances. We do test the hotshoe connection and electronics with a Nikon D80 camera before each new housing leaves the factory.

We do not reimburse freight charges for the return of product to Ikelite. However we do cover freight charges back to both US and international customers on warranty repairs.

Regards,
Jean / Ikelite
IKELITE Underwater Systems

 

[John Gulliver]

Sorry but this is not an intermittent problem. The shoe connector is simply too long for the contacts to make electrical contact with the corresponding contacts of the camera's hot shoe. That is obvious to the naked eye when I compare it with my friend's. I find it hard to believe that you can have checked this without detecting the fault before the housing left your factory. I have e-mailed Submerge Camera about the problem. I very much doubt that my housing is the only one they have sold or still have in stock that has this fault. I see no reason why I should have to pay 80 dollars to ship a brand new housing with an obvious design fault to you.

 

[Ikelite Staff]

The #6808.1 model of housing has been in production since November 2006 with no known issues with or changes to the hotshoe (which is the same hotshoe used on every Nikon model we offer). Each housing's electronics are thoroughly tested not just once, but multiple independent times for proper operation with our camera. A check of on-hand inventory also confirms that dimensions are according to the most current production specifications.

Is it possible that you have been attaching the hotshoe in the wrong direction? It will not slide in all of the way if incorrectly oriented. Damage to the side contacts may also lead to problems pushing the hotshoe in all of the way. Perhaps if you could e-mail us (ikelite@ikelite.com) a picture of the hotshoe slid onto the camera we could get closer to the root of your problem.

Regards,
Jean / Ikelite
IKELITE Underwater Systems

 

[John Gulliver]

As I said, the housing is on its way to you. When I discovered the problem, I asked a friend with a somewhat older Ikelite D80 housing to test the shoe contact in my housing with my camera and his strobes and sync cable. Result: The strobes would not fire. When he tested the shoe contact in his housing with my camera and the same strobes and sync cable, everything worked fine. Anyway, you should receive the housing by the end of the week and can test it yourselves. I don't know when my housing was manufactured, of course, but you have my warranty card and can check for yourselves.